Quality protein maize: QPM

Abstract

Quality protein maize (QPM) contains the opaque-2 gene along with numerous modifiers for kernel hardness. Therefore, QPM is maize with high nutritive value of endosperm protein, with substantially higher content of two essential amino acids - lysine and tryptophan, and with good agronomical performances. Although QPM was developed primarily for utilization in the regions where, because of poverty, maize is the main staple food, it has many advantages for production and consumption in other parts of the world, too. QPM can be used for production of conventional and new animal feed, as well as for human nurture. As the rate of animal weight gain is doubled with QPM and portion viability is better, a part of normal maize production could be available for other purposes, such as, for example, ethanol production. Thus, breeding QPM is set as a challenge to produce high quality protein maize with high yield and other important agronomical traits, especially with today's food and feed demands and significance of energy crisis.Kukuruz visokog kvaliteta proteina (QPM - Quality Protein Maize) sadrzi opaque-2 gen, kao i mnogobrojne modifikatore za tvrdocu zrna. QPM se moze definisati kao kukuruz sa visokom nutritivnom vrednoscu proteina endosperma, odnosno znacajno vecim sadrzajem dve esencijalne aminokiseline - lizinom i triptofanom, i istovremeno dobrim agronomskim perfomansama. Mada je QPM stvoren prvenstveno za koriscenje u regionima u kojima je, zbog siromastva, kukuruz glavna hrana, postoje mnoge prednosti za proizvodnju i koriscenje ovog kukuruza i u ostalim regionima sveta. QPM se moze koristiti za proizvodnju konvencionalne i nove hrane za zivotinje, kao i za ishranu ljudi. Zbog dvostruko brzeg prirasta telesne tezine zivotinja i boljeg iskoriscavanja pripremljenog obroka QPM kukuruza, deo proizvedenog standardnog kukuruza bi se mogao preusmeriti za druge potrebe, kao na primer za proizvodnju etanola. Selekcija kukuruza za poboljsanje kvaliteta proteina, zajedno sa visokim prinosom i dobrim perfomansama drugih znacjnih agronomskih svojstava, predstavlja izazov za selekcionere, pogotovo imajuci u vidu danasnje potrebe za hranom, kao i znacaj energetske krize.